The Last Round’s on Us
It is uncharacteristic of Matt Gould that his passing came just as Louisville Craft Beer Week hit critical mass.
That’s because Matt wouldn’t have wanted us to make a fuss. Quite a few local craft beer lifers didn’t even know he had been gravely ill, or for how long. He’d surely say the show could go on perfectly well without a dumb old brewer, and then he’d growl at us to get out there and drink some beer, damn it.
But here’s the conundrum: Matt’s lengthy career in beer helped make Louisville Craft Beer Week possible. It helped make Louisville beer possible, period. I’m sure he knew it, and I hope he was proud of it. He had a right to be.
As his colleague and friend Joel Halbleib put it: “Matt was a Louisville brewing legend.”
Matt’s work as a brewer spanned the modern-day history of brewing in Louisville. He assisted Eileen Martin at the Silo, worked with David Pierce at Bluegrass Brewing Company’s original St. Matthews location, opened Cumberland Brews and built the beer program there, and finally went to work for BBC again, this time at the production facility on the beer corner of Main & Clay. Ironically, in the very end, Eileen was a co-worker once more.
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